Retirement

Get a clear picture of your retirement assets, OASI contributions and potential vested benefits. Visit myPublica for details of your retirement benefits along with a range of simulations. You can obtain information about your OASI contributions from your compensation office, and ask the 2nd Pillar Central Office to check whether you have any vested benefits you don’t know about.

Find out whether you will experience an income gap once you retire. You can use the «Retirement simulation» service in myPublica to help you do this.

Check whether it makes sense to buy into your pension scheme, make additional voluntary savings contributions or pay into pillar 3a.

If you own or plan to buy your own home, consider how an early withdrawal or a pledge will affect your retirement benefits.

Your contact at PUBLICA will be happy to help answer any questions you may have about your occupational pension and adjustments within pillar 2.

Consider which option is best for you: an annuity, a lump sum or a combination of the two. This is a highly individual decision but also a crucial one, because it cannot be reversed. Seek information at an early stage.

Should you decide to take all or part of your assets as a lump sum, your written application to do so must reach PUBLICA at least three months before you retire. If you miss this deadline, administration fees will be charged.

If you are married, you must also obtain your spouse’s written consent to a lump-sum payment in the form of a certified signature.

If you take partial retirement, you can draw your retirement benefits in up to three stages, and as an annuity, a lump sum or a combination of the two. This is a good way to supplement a reduced income. Lump-sum withdrawals can be made in instalments, which can have tax advantages.

You can also simulate stages of partial retirement in the myPublica active member portal.

At PUBLICA, you can retire at any age between 60 and 70. (Those insured in the Affiliated Organisations pension plan can do so from the age of 58.) You can easily simulate the financial impact of retiring at various ages in the myPublica active member portal. Please bear in mind that your choice of retirement date must also be coordinated with your employer. 

An application for a lump-sum withdrawal must be submitted no later than three months before you retire. Talk to your contact at PUBLICA at an early stage.

Anyone taking retirement before the reference age can draw a bridging pension. It is linked to the maximum OASI (state) pension, adjusted for the reported employment percentage. Unlike with the state pension, there is no 13th bridging pension. The employment legislation specifies how financing for this is to be divided up between the employer and the active member.

If you reduce your annual salary, you can maintain your insured salary at its existing level. This means your retirement benefits will be unchanged and your pension assets will continue to accrue interest.

Plan how you want to use your time, what financial goals you have, and how you will organise your income and budget. Sound preparation will help this new phase in your life get off to a good start.

If your employer terminates your employment after you reach 58, you can remain insured with PUBLICA and retain all your pension options. You can continue your insurance with or without savings contributions. The main advantage of this is that your pension assets will continue to grow within the pension fund, and you can still draw your pension at a later date.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has compiled a helpful overview containing many useful tips.

Read more

Our Revue magazine contains a wealth of information for pension recipients. Read the most recent issue from January 2025.

Pensions for the current month are paid into your personal bank or post office account by the 10th at the latest. You will normally receive your pension statement by the middle of February.

The loss of someone close to you is always a difficult time. Please notify us of the death so that we can make the necessary arrangements, using the «Registration for survivor’s benefits» form.

We’ve put together a collection of useful information on this topic. Our pension advisors will be happy to help you choose. 

From the time you retire, you will receive a retirement pension and/or a lump-sum payment. You can take voluntary retirement after your 60th birthday (or with some pension plans, after your 58th).